


The Balmeran Beat

by GamerAlexis



Series: Soul Music [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Background Keith/Lance - Freeform, F/M, Polynesian Hunk (Voltron), Soul Bond, Soulmates, background shiro/allura - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-13
Updated: 2017-06-13
Packaged: 2018-11-13 05:41:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11178243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GamerAlexis/pseuds/GamerAlexis
Summary: Hunk had never been afraid to sing his soul song.  It was a deep song with syncopated beats that had never been heard before.  Mimicking the traditional songs of his ancestors but not quite the same, Hunk accepted his song as part of him even if he would never find his soulmate.





	The Balmeran Beat

**Author's Note:**

> This AU basically took over my life - so here's Hunk and Shay's story :)
> 
> I wrote this listening to the entire Moana soundtrack, which heavily inspired Hunk's song/singing, as did the Firebird Suite Finale and (briefly) The Rite of Spring, both composed by Stravinsky.

Hunk belted his voice out, staring down Lance in their room.  Lance was standing on the chair, his soul song trilling in the air and his blue eyes narrowed in determination.  Lance's song had always sounded different, a sad lullaby in a major key with simply harmonies and modulations.  Hunk didn't have much room to criticize, since his song was a strange mix of traditional melodies and syncopated beats.

Which is what led to their singing competition.

Lance's face was turning red and his song went up even higher in pitch.  Hunk's let his song drop, low notes, deep and swaying with his hips.  Eventually, Lance's notes shattered in the air and he was gasping for breath while Hunk kept singing.

"Okay, okay, you win!" Lance laughed and collapsed to the ground, red faced and wheezing.  "Dude, you sing like a  _beast_.  What kind of song is that anyway?"

"Better than your little songbird lullaby!" Hunk countered.  His lungs were burning and he sat down on the chair in their room.

"Excuse you, my song is a  _delight_."

"I don't know about that," Hunk shrugged.  "I've heard some pretty good songs here."

Lance sat up and his eyes narrowed at Hunk.  "A matching song?"

Hunk scoffed.  "You have a strange song, Lance, and so do I.  The songs here are traditional soul songs, melodies missing harmonies, the like.  Our songs aren't like that, Lance, and you know it."

Lance stuck out his lower lip.  "But I like my song."

"And you got a soulmate out there somewhere," Hunk said.  "Probably with just as weird a song as you."

"You've been spending too much time with Pidge, haven't you?" Lance accused.  "He's always going off about soul songs and soulmates.  I swear, if I have to listen to Pidge ramble about perfect fifths or modulations I'm going to kill him."

"It's an interesting science!" Hunk said.  "You have to at least admit that."

"Did you know that Keith doesn't have a song?" Lance said suddenly.

Hunk sighed and let Lance ramble on about Keith's annoying dancing.

* * *

Hunk grew up listening to his parents sing.  They had the traditional soul songs of the pacific with tight harmonies and only a drum beat to keep on track.  He remembered watching them dance with flowers in their hair and glowing in the firelight as they sang.  It wasn't until Hunk was older that he realized what an oddity his family had been.  He was born of a political marriage and had no memory of his birth father.

For soon after his birth, his mother sang and someone else sang back.

His mom's soulmate was a pretty woman with a slender frame and dark eyes and she was the only other parent Hunk had ever known.  They were ridiculously in love and their soul songs were the envy of the island.

Hunk danced with them, leaves tied around his ankles and wrists as he felt his own song build up in his chest.

But it wasn't the same song that he heard from his mothers.  It had a similar feeling, the same heavy beat in his chest that spoke through his feet.  But he sang strange harmonies, notes and phrases that clashed with everyone else he met.  His song was too discordant, too many minor notes and tripping rhythms that had no match.

Despite his soul song, Hunk had a glorious voice.  He sang the traditional songs of his people with pride, learned to dance to the pounding drum, and was a good son to his mothers.

On dark and quiet nights, Hunk would run out to the ocean shore.  Alone with just the moon and stars for company, Hunk would sing his strange soul song and dance to the syncopated beat.  He wondered where his soulmate would be, if they were singing to the stars alone and waiting for him.

 

When Hunk left his home, he kissed his mother and makuahine goodbye, his pack heavy with pictures of home and a heart heavy with homesickness.  Soon, he realized how different the world was outside of his little island.  Soul songs were sang loudly and proudly, that much was the same, but there was no dancing to it.  So Hunk kept his singing low and his tapping feet and thudding heart still.

* * *

Aboard the strange castle ship, everything was different.  Shiro met his soulmate, a haunting melody finally meeting its match, and Hunk saw firsthand, Keith's dancing.  It was the first time since leaving home that Hunk had seen anyone dance their soul song.

Far away from Lance's snide remarks, Hunk found Keith dancing in a spare room in the castle.  Slow sweeps of his arms and legs and quick spins and jumps.  It wasn't the same dancing Hunk had grown up with, but he could see the passion behind it.

"Do you have a song?" Hunk asked.

Keith stumbled and turned sharply towards Hunk with panic written across his face.

"Lance mentioned you dance but he never said you dance your soul song," Hunk explained.

"I don't have a song," Keith said sheepishly.  "I've only ever danced.  I've heard all of your songs, danced to them even, but I don't sing..."

"That's okay!  Where I come from, we dance and sing.  My makuahine has the most beautiful voice and met my mom during one of the dances."

Keith squinted at Hunk.  "You're from the pacific, aren't you?  Why do you dance if you have a song?"

Hunk shrugged.  "They're both expressions of music, aren't they?  Here, I'll show you."

Stepping into the room, Hunk started to sing, not his soul song, just a traditional song he had learned growing up.  A song about travelling, about the ocean and their voyaging ancestors.  His voice echoed in the still room and Hunk could pretend he was home, his cousins and friends singing alongside him in their sharp voices and harmonies.  His feet hit the ground, mimicking the drums he was born listening to.

Hunk slipped into the dance without a thought, careful movements of his feet and wrists.  Keith came up next to him, copying the movements as Hunk's voice rose.

It had been so long since he had danced with a partner but Keith was a quick student.  When the song dropped to something soft and melodious, Keith immediately lowered his hands and swung his hips side to side.  Hunk slowed to a stop but kept singing, the words and melodies mimicking the careful push and pull of the ocean that Keith seemed to catch onto without thought.

"You feel the songs," Hunk whispered as his final notes wavered in the air.  "All our songs, you feel it."

Keith shrugged.  "It's just music, like you said."

* * *

The Balmera had a song; faint as a flickering candle, but the moment Hunk first landed and laid eyes on the Balmerans, he knew there was a song here.  He could feel the thrumming beat through the soles of his feet and hear the mournful singing of the Balmera.

"Do you sing?" Shay asked shyly.  "We Balmerans have sung since days of old.  The Balmeran beat runs through all of us and connects us to our soulmates."

"Yeah, we sing too," Hunk grinned.  "Well, my friend Keith doesn't sing, he dances, but that's okay.  I dance too."

Shay's eyes widened.  "You dance?  But how?"

"Here," Hunk jumped off the ship and gestured for Shay to jump down too.  "I'll show you if you sing."

"It is not right to sing alone," Shay hesitated as Hunk took her hands in his.  "The Balmera brings us together and until we meet our other half, it is forbidden to sing."

"Then how do you find your soulmate if you don't sing your soul song?" Hunk countered.  "It's fine, Shay.  I can sing.  Just follow my lead."

The soft thrumming Hunk felt beneath his feet grew until the Balmera was pulsing around him and Shay.  He pushed words out of his throat and followed the rise and fall of the Balmeran beat.  With Shay's hands in his, he pulled her into a simple dance.  Each step of their feet left glowing prints in the ground and Hunk could hear the Balmera singing back to him.

Shay laughed as Hunk spun her out and tapped a few steps alone, his hands rising in the air as his singing went faster.  The words were quick and sharp across his lips and the thudding of the Balmera matched his pounding heart.

Then Shay started to sing back.

Hunk lost his breath and he tripped over his own feet but Shay caught him and lifted him back up easily.  Her voice echoed in the caverns and the pulsing Balmera stopped, leaving Hunk feeling cold and hot.  Something in his throat started to burn.

"Shay..."

"What have you done?" Rax's voice was sharp and Shay jumped away.

"Rax, it's not what it looks like!"

"You were singing, Shay!  You know that's forbidden!"

"It's not her fault!" Hunk stepped between the siblings.  "I told her to sing.  I didn't know -"

He looked over at Shay, with her bright yellow eyes that were staring at him with confusion.

"I don't understand," she said.  "What is this feeling?  I feel strange, warm.  What happened, Hunk?"

"Get out!" Rax shouted.  "We were fine before you came along!  Leave before you ruin everything else!"

Rax grabbed Shay and dragged her away before Hunk could say anything.

* * *

Hunk couldn't stop humming and singing as they flew towards the Balmera.  It didn't matter what Rax had said, Hunk knew exactly what the feeling in his heart was, the tugging and warmth that suffused his entire body.  His soul song had found its match.  Lance and Pidge teased him endlessly but he couldn't stop singing.  The closer they got to the Balmera the more Hunk could feel the beat.

And his singing got even louder.

Nothing was going to stop him from saving Shay.

It was later, much later, after a battle and a planet-wide restoration, that Hunk finally got a chance to sit alone with Shay.

"What happened before?" Shay asked.  "When last you were here, something happened between us while we sang."

"Was that your soul song?" Hunk asked.  Shay nodded.  Hunk turned to face her fully.  "Our songs, Shay, they matched up.  Your soul song and mine."

"But that means -"

"I didn't know, Shay.  I didn't mean to start something like this with you."

Shay shook her head.  "No, Hunk.  I welcome this!  I don't understand, though, how you can be my match when you have not been born of the Balmera.  Does the beat speak to you?"

Hunk pressed his hand to the Balmera's surface.  The pulsing was warm against his palm.  Shay shifted her hand to rest on his and her pulse matched his own.

"I can feel it.  I can feel the Balmeran beat, hear its song, just as clearly as I hear my own - as clearly as I heard  _yours_."

Shay curled her hand around Hunk's.

"Then perhaps it is as you say."

"We can take it slow, Shay.  I'll be happy to know that you're my soulmate."

Shay smiled and the sun rose over the planet.

**Author's Note:**

> (the ending sucks because I'm exhausted and wanted to do this and my hand hurts like hell but Hunk and Shay are just super cute even if I can't do them justice)


End file.
